1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ice piece manufacturing apparatus having a guide plate for guiding ice pieces made on a manufacturing plate to a storing room. Specifically, the invention relates to an ice piece manufacturing apparatus in which a guide plate is directly arranged to a manufacturing plate in a state where the guide plate is inclined toward a storing room and a predetermined space necessary to smoothly drop the ice piece from the manufacturing plate onto the guide plate is secured between the manufacturing plate and the guide plate. The ice piece is dropped from the manufacturing plate and guided to the storing room through the guide plate in a smooth manner.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various apparatus have been proposed for manufacturing ice pieces. In such apparatuses, ice pieces are generally manufactured as follows: at first, when a cooling device is driven, a cooling medium is circulated in an ice manufacturing plate to cool down the manufacturing plate. Water used for manufacturing ice pieces is then provided from a water tank to the cooled manufacturing plate through a water providing pump. The water provided to the manufacturing plate is sprinkled over an upper surface of the manufacturing plate. The sprinkled water is gradually frozen and ice pieces are formed on the upper surface of the manufacturing plate. After manufacturing of the ice pieces mentioned above is finished, the ice pieces formed on the upper surface of the manufacturing plate are released from the upper surface by flowing releasing water into the manufacturing plate which is utilized for releasing the ice pieces from the upper surface of the manufacturing plate. The released ice pieces are then guided toward a storing room by a guide plate.
A description of the guide plate installed in the above conventional ice piece manufacturing apparatus will be given hereinafter with reference to FIGS. 5 and 6. FIG. 5 is a sectional view which schematically shows an installing state between the water tank and the guide plate in the conventional ice piece manufacturing apparatus, and FIG. 6 is a perspective view which schematically shows a state where the guide plate is removed from the water tank.
In FIGS. 5 and 6, at both side walls of a water tank 20, a pair of installing portions 21A (in FIG. 6, one of the installing portions 21A is shown) are formed and an installing portion 21B (see FIG. 5) is formed over an upper edge of behind wall of the water tank 20. A guide plate 23 is installed on the water tank 20 through the installing portions 21A, 21B so that the guide plate 23 covers an open plane of the water tank 20 and is inclined and directed toward a storing room 24. Manufacturing plates 22 are arranged at an upper position of the guide plate 23 through a retaining plate (not shown).
According to the above construction, the ice pieces I released from the manufacturing plate 22 are dropped with deadweight thereof on the inclined guide plate 23 and slide into the storing room 24 by being guided through the guide plate 23. At that time, it is conceivable that the ice pieces I are broken and scattered in the apparatus when the ice pieces I are dropped on the guide plate 23. In order to avoid such trouble, a pair of brim portions 25 are formed by upwardly extending both side walls of the water tank 20 from positions where the guide plate 23 is arranged.
Further, as shown in FIG. 5, the nearest space (distance) D which is defined by a distance between the lower end of the manufacturing plate 22 and the upper surface of the guide plate 23 is set so that a suitable distance necessary for releasing the ice pieces I from the manufacturing plate 22 can be secured. That is to say, in case that the nearest space D is too short, the ice pieces I released from the manufacturing plate 22 one by one are simultaneously contacted with both the lower end of the manufacturing plate 22 and the guide plate 23, and thus releasing of the ice pieces I cannot be conducted in a smooth manner. Further, if the ice pieces I are clogged between the manufacturing plate 22 and the guide plate 23, the manufacturing ability of the apparatus goes down and thereby the apparatus cannot manufacture the ice pieces. On the other hand, if the nearest space D is too long, unnecessary space is formed in the apparatus and thus a demand of miniaturizing the apparatus to reduce an installing area thereof cannot be satisfied.
However, in the above conventional apparatus, the brim portion 25 are formed at both side walls of the water tank 20, separately from the guide plate 23 and the guide plate 23 is arranged on both the installing portions 21A formed at inner sides of the brim portions 25 and installing portion 21B formed on the behind wall of the water tank 20. Therefore, a high degree of precision in providing the space between the water tank 20 and the guide plate 23 is necessary in order to smoothly guide the ice pieces I released from the manufacturing plate 22 into the storing room 24. It is, in general, very difficult to form both the water tank 20 and the guide plate 23 with a high degree of precision therebetween, thus there is a problem that the cost of the apparatus cannot be reduced. On the other hand, if precision is not maintained between the guide plate 23 and the water tank 20, it is conceivable that unnecessary space is yielded between the both side edges of the guide plate 23 and the brim portions 25 and, in such case, the ice pieces I are clogged into the yielded space. As a result, the ice pieces I cannot be smoothly guided from the guide plate 23 into the storing room 24.
Moreover, in order to retain manufacturing ability of the ice pieces I, it is necessary to smoothly release the ice pieces I one by one from the manufacturing plate 22. Thus, the nearest space D between the lower end of the manufacturing plate 22 and the guide plate 23 has to be constantly maintained to a suitable space so that the ice pieces I are not clogged therebetween. However, in the above conventional apparatus, the guide plate 23 is arranged along with the open plane of the water tank 20 and the manufacturing plate 22 is arranged in the apparatus by utilizing the retaining plate. Therefore, in order to secure a suitable space between the lower end of the manufacturing plane 22 and the guide plate 23, installing positions of the water tank 20, the guide plate 23, the manufacturing plate 22 and the retaining plate have to be precisely determined with each other and each member has to be correctly installed.
However, since each member of the water tank 20, the guide plate 23, the manufacturing plate 22 and the retaining plate are separately and independently installed in different processes, an installation error occurring among the members when mutually installed cannot be, in fact, taken into consideration. Due to this, it is difficult that the installation relationship between the manufacturing plate 22 and the guide plate 23 is precisely determined and a suitable space necessary to smoothly drop the ice pieces I is constantly secured therebetween. Therefore, there is a problem that ice manufacturing ability of the apparatus goes down due to the fact that a suitable space cannot be secured between the manufacturing plate 22 and the guide plate 23.